Why can't we do this in Britain?

[Lord Bracknell]

I've just bought two first-class train tickets from Lisbon to Coimbra off the Portuguese Railways (English language) website. You get to choose which train you want, the carriage you want to sit in and the exact seats that you want. And the transaction is completed by being able to print out the bar-coded tickets at home. There's now nothing more to do than get on the train.

The price? €30 each for a journey of 196km. Or in old money, about £25 for 122.5 miles. Second class is about two-thirds of the price of first class.

You also have the option of receiving the tickets as a text message.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Well L/B in good old England you see, we work for the service providers. Where as elsewhere the service providers work for us !

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Could it be hard to do because Lisbon and Coimbra are not in this country?

 

[Gully]

...but can easily be found if you take the wrong train at St Pancras and head south via the under-channel tube thingy.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

...but can easily be found if you take the wrong train at St Pancras and head south via the under-channel tube thingy.

touche

 

[Grizz]

I know it seems so easy on the continent, i've just booked first class from london to Limoges for £200, got nothing left to do except get to Kings X check in and away we go.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Could it be hard to do because Lisbon and Coimbra are not in this country?

But I am.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I know it seems so easy on the continent, i've just booked first class from london to Limoges for £200, got nothing left to do except get to Kings X check in and away we go.

Do you know what seat you have booked? Could you change it for a better one? Why are you having to check in?

 

[Franks Wild Years]

Went to Coimbra during Euro 04 and a lovely place it was. Foreign train travel rocks LB, the best way to go imo.

 

[house your seagull]

alright LB, riddle me this ...

yesterday i bought on trainline.com (they have it in english too) a return ticket to London for £27, they send me the details via text message - i turn up at the station on the day and use an automated machine that prints my tickets (takes me about 30 seconds). i got to choose if i wanted a table and which way i would be facing.

that's roughly a 400 mile round trip.

so in fact, yes, we do do that in this country.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I know could get cheap tickets if you apply three months early, it was a full moon and you change 3 times, but open train ticket to the Harlepool game priced at £283 return. It really makes no sense, you can get a return flight to Newcastle for £101.

Is there a game on the day you travel, will the train be full of fans drinking and singing Ronaldo style Beckham songs.

 

[Beach Hut]

You can buy tickets for the Heathrow Express and print out as a barcode.

National Rail is moving over to this slowly

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I've just bought two first-class train tickets from Lisbon to Coimbra off the Portuguese Railways (English language) website. You get to choose which train you want, the carriage you want to sit in and the exact seats that you want. And the transaction is completed by being able to print out the bar-coded tickets at home. There's now nothing more to do than get on the train.

The price? €30 each for a journey of 196km. Or in old money, about £25 for 122.5 miles. Second class is about two-thirds of the price of first class.

You also have the option of receiving the tickets as a text message.

I think it's pretty good here too.

I'm going to Birmingham on Monday (120 miles) and am paying £36 for a 1st class ticket (it was the cheapest available) and would have been even less if i had ordered it more in advance. In addition to the 1st class carriage I get to go into the 1st class lounge at Euston. Bit more expensive but the cost of living here is far higher than Portugal and I'd wager I get more value.

I got the tickets the next day but could have picked them up at the station. I'm sure we could get our tickets in the UK via print out (dont BA offer this for check in) or text message (megabus do this) but lots of people want to have actual tickets in their hand rather than just a printout.

 

[Simster]

Lord B, there isn't much wrong with our long distance train travel, IMO. It's commuter services that are rubbish.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Lord B, there isn't much wrong with our long distance train travel, IMO. It's commuter services that are rubbish.

Agreed or was this a thinly velied holiday thread?

The commuters keep the network running almost single handedly, yet get a very raw deal when it comes to service. I gave up the car to commute by train and more often than not, I wouldn't get a seat on the train home. I was paying aproximately £2k a year to stand up for half of it. I know people pay much more to travel to London and face the same problems.

They didn't seem to have done their homework. Frequently a train passed through Chichester on the way to London and it was always over half empty with five+ carriages and the following train to Brighton was always overfilled and only 3 carriages long.

 

[Cecil]

I've just bought two first-class train tickets from Lisbon to Coimbra off the Portuguese Railways (English language) website. You get to choose which train you want, the carriage you want to sit in and the exact seats that you want. And the transaction is completed by being able to print out the bar-coded tickets at home. There's now nothing more to do than get on the train.

The price? €30 each for a journey of 196km. Or in old money, about £25 for 122.5 miles. Second class is about two-thirds of the price of first class.

You also have the option of receiving the tickets as a text message.

Made that exact trip in Euro 2004. Have to say trains were very clean and ran on time !!!

 

[Clapham Old Mug]

Continental trains not always what they're cracked up to be... Had to spend 24 hours near Oulx in the Italian Alps a couple of weeks ago. Return first class seat about £170. Great, except the carriage on the return trip (5 hours, arr. Paris at 11:45pm) was completely full with French Club Med group, 50% being under 3. The lady next to me changed her daughter's nappy in the aisle twice during the journey. At least it stopped it screaming - briefly.

 

[The Spanish]

I think it's pretty good here too.

I'm going to Birmingham on Monday (120 miles) and am paying £36 for a 1st class ticket (it was the cheapest available) and would have been even less if i had ordered it more in advance. In addition to the 1st class carriage I get to go into the 1st class lounge at Euston. Bit more expensive but the cost of living here is far higher than Portugal and I'd wager I get more value.

I got the tickets the next day but could have picked them up at the station. I'm sure we could get our tickets in the UK via print out (dont BA offer this for check in) or text message (megabus do this) but lots of people want to have actual tickets in their hand rather than just a printout.

its getting there. wont be long and will be a major acheivement bearing in mind:

Our network is vastly more complicated than portugals, at a guess. I would reckon there are more stations and train operating companies on a victorian rail network in south east england the most densely populated spot in Europe than in the whole of portugal. we have more people just in london than there are people in portugal. for a start.

other factors come in to play apart from the usual i commute from haywards heath every day into my cushy job in europes economic powerhouse like millions of others and i expect to be taken by sedan chair to my house and have a glass of champers served to me on the way. nothing wrong with criticising poor service but sometimes its laughable the wingeing.

most countries would give their eye teeth for our network.

 

[Grizz]

Do you know what seat you have booked? Could you change it for a better one? Why are you having to check in?

Yep got my seat and everything, but i'm going with a couple of mates and we're in different carriages so gonna try and get moved. As to checking in i think that's standard with all Eurostar journeys i've had to do, show passports etc etc.

 

[Badger]

If you want to see truly awful long distance trains head over to good old US of A, their trains are old, full of simpletons and it is not unusual for them to be at least 5 hours late.